Saturday, June 10, 2017

Today, on this first Sunday after Pentecost, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. It is not an extraneous feast day, without relevance in our daily lives. The Holy Trinity is in fact our Beginning and our end. He is our reason for being. Everything, EVERYTHING! we have, our family, our possessions, our world and our very existences is a gift from the Holy Trinity. Our Final Goal is the Holy Trinity, to be One with the Holy Trinity, one with the God who is Love. This is the reason why the truth of the Holy Trinity is the key pillar of the Christian faith and so why we celebrate liturgically this great Solemnity right after Pentecost.

In speaking of the Holy Trinity, simply stated, the mystery of the Holy Trinity states that there is one God in three Divine Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, yet there is only one God, not three Gods, one divine nature in three distinct divine Persons. The Divine nature is not divided (like pieces of a pie) between the persons of the Blessed Trinity. No, each person shares in the fullness of the Divine nature; yet, the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Holy Spirit, etc.

It contemplating the Holy Trinity it doesn't work to think mathematically (i.e. one plus one plus one equals one. This is the mistake Mohammad and others made). No, we must think in terms of love to begin to begin to understand the Trinity. Perhaps one of the easiest ways to think about the Trinity is their essential unity, a unity which comes from Perfect Love. The Three Persons of the Trinity are One in Perfect Love. We have never experience perfect love, but even so, we desire it and so it must exist.

Let’s use the example of Human love to help us understand. When we love someone we want to be close to them not far away; in fact if we really love them we want to be so close that we desire to be one with them. Our love gives us the intention to live our lives with our loved one in a way that not only proves our undying love and fidelity, but moves us towards a more perfect unity, a unity of love. We understand this intention and yet we understand how hard it is to accomplish. Yet, we do try; hopefully with God’s grace. For example, a man and a woman who love each other desire to give their whole selves to each other in marital love-to be one in mind, heart and spirit; when we see someone who loves like this we even say they are as of “one heart and mind.”

For the Holy Trinity, however, perfect love is not just intentional; it is completely real. In other words, unlike us, they don’t just intend to love each other perfectly, they are able and do love each other perfectly. Each member of the Trinity gives of Himself totally, sacrificially, perfectly to each other, nothing held back. And this total sacrificial gift of themselves unites them in perfect oneness, the oneness of perfect Love.

The Fathers of the Early Church liked to say that the Holy Spirit is the substantial love between the Father and the Son. Their quality is essentially one- unity is the most important. God is Love, the Father is Love, the Son is Love, the Holy Spirit is Love; three persons united so perfectly in Love that they are a unity of one God; Very simply—love unites--perfect Love unites perfectly.

The Holy Trinity is a mystery; but not a mystery to be solved, but a mystery to be professed and lived. The Mystery of the Holy Trinity reveals to us that we are called to greatness, for we are called to the Oneness of Love Himself. We are called to share in the inner Life and so the inner Love of the members of the Blessed Trinity; we are called to become one with the Trinity.

The Holy Trinity is therefore our everything. And our eternal destiny depends on whether we believe this and so live our lives according to this great truth. How important our understanding and belief is then in the Trinitarian God. If we don't know what or for Whom we are made, how can we ever find our way back to Him, to live as one with Him. We are Made by Love and For Love; we are made to be eternally One with Love--The Most Blessed Trinity.

And so we must in this life come to know the Blessed Trinity intimately. Before we can live in eternal Love itself--the Trinity, we must learned to love with perfection in this life, to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect, in order to be united in love with God and others for love of God. This is by the way, why unity is so important; unity in our families, unity in our Church on the Universal level, the local diocesan level, and the parish and unity among all Christians and among all men. There is no true love without unity; true love unites.

To obtain this unity of love we must of course have daily, intimate contact with Perfect Unity Itself, Perfect Love Itself, the Blessed Trinity. The Blessed Trinity is the source of all unity and all love; He is the source of true and authentic family life because He is Family, not a family but The Family.

How do we have intimate contact with the Trinity? Well yes through daily prayer, but especially through the most perfect of all prayers—The Holy Mass. All the prayers during the Mass invoke the members of the Blessed Trinity. All of the action of the Holy Mass is directed toward the Holy Trinity. And Every Holy Mass gives us the real opportunity to come in intimate contact with the Most Blessed Trinity. And more than contact, but to actually become more and more united to the Son, and through the Son, to be united to the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Mass makes Truly present Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament along with HIs once and for Sacrifice to the Father on Our behalf, but it does so that through this action of the Son (the second Person of the Trinity) made truly present in our midst, we may have access to the Holy Trinity. The Blessed Sacrament is then the Way to the Blessed Trinity of Divine Persons, for it is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Jesus become Man. Through our adoration of the humanity of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, His Resurrected, glorified Body and Blood, we can in faith touch the divinity of Jesus and so touch the Holy Trinity, in, with and through the perfect Love and unity of the Son…”through Him with Him, and Him

And then when we receive Jesus with faith in Holy Communion, He comes to us, in us; and through Him, the Father and Holy Spirit comes to us and in us, and if we let Them, They make Their abode, Their dwelling with us. As a result, when we receive Holy Communion worthily (and worthily is the key word here, that is, in the state of grace by frequent Sacramental Confession) we receive all Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. In the Holy Eucharist God gives Himself totally, sacrificially perfectly to us in love. And if in Faith, Adoration, Hope and love we offer ourselves to Him in return, we then begin to share already on earth, in the inner life and love of the members of Blessed Trinity. And the Trinitarian love is from whom we came and the greatness to which we are called to return and the Love that we are called to share with others so through us they too may adore and so become one with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let us pray:

O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so as to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into Your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action.

Our Lady, daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, and spouse of the Holy Spirit, help us to offer ourselves totally, perfectly, in a sacrifice of love at this Holy Mass and at every Holy Mass, help us to place our heart on the paten, so that we, like you will live and lead others to live, in the Divine life and Love of the Most Blessed Trinity, beginning now, and fully and forever in the life to come. Amen

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Today on this great solemnity of Pentecost we celebrate the birth of the Church. It is the day when the Holy Spirit came upon the Blessed Virgin Mary and then onto the Apostles present in the upper room. But not before those first bishops and priests had spent the previous nine days in deep intimate prayer with the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Holy Spirit is the One who came with many great gifts on Pentecost to renew the face of the earth. The Holy Spirit gave the apostles Seven-Fold Gifts of divine grace. These were supernatural gifts-gifts that enabled them to live for God alone, in joyful intimacy and friendship with Him. When the power of the Holy Spirit came upon them they became great witnesses to the world to Jesus, and to the truth of His teachings in the face of great difficulties and even outright persecution and death.

For us, like the apostles, the help we need from on High, that is the gifts of the Holy Spirit, are given to us at well. We need not only His divine strength and light, but also the Hope and joy of divine friendship with Him. With His divine gifts, the Holy Spirit wants to continue His work of renewing the whole world, beginning within our own hearts (this is the way the world is always renew; it begins with our own hearts and then flows out from us). The Holy Spirit wants to use us in order to bring His light to the souls we come in contact with on a daily basis, sharing with them the hope and joy that is alive within us and which comes from this divine guest and friend of our soul.
Let us look closer at these supernatural gifts that the Holy Spirit gave to the apostles and to us, beginning at our baptism and confirmed in us at our Confirmation. These supernatural gifts are: WISDOM, KNOWLEDGE, UNDERSTANDING, FORTITUDE, COUNSEL, PIETY, AND FEAR OF THE LORD.

First, the gift of wisdom. Wisdom gives us a spiritual awareness of the love of God and allows us to order and judge the things of this world from this perspective. In other words, with wisdom in our lives we don’t put the things of this world before the Creator of things. We don’t use this life to obtain things but we use things of this life to obtain God.

In the gift of Understanding, or also called the gift of Intelligence, we are given the understanding of divine things, especially when we read and hear the Holy Scriptures and study the teachings of the Church which are the teachings of Christ. With this gift, the Holy Spirit gives us the desire to know and understand better the truths of our Catholic faith and how intricately they affect our relationship with Christ and with one another. We learn how to live the Truth which comes from God.

The gift of fortitude gives us strength to live our faith, to live the Truth. This strength is not just for doing extraordinary things; like martyrdom, but this gift also helps us in the ordinary struggles we have in life, especially our daily struggle against sin. It helps us to persevere even in our darkest moments, not to lose hope.

Along with the Gift of Fortitude, He will help us to use the Gift of Knowledge so that we can exercise the moral virtue of prudence, enabling us to make practical decisions in our lives which are in conformity to God’s Holy Will. Close to the Gift of Knowledge is the Gift of Counsel.

Counsel is like a divine compass. In the problems and uncertainties of life this gift helps us to know what will work best for the glory of God, not only for our own souls but even for the souls of others. The Gift of Counsel directs us in our everyday life. It helps us, to prudently choose the right thing to do in a given circumstance. No matter how intricate and difficult the situation is, aided by this great Gift, we are better able to see what to do in a given situation in order to please God and fulfill His Holy Will thus living life to the fullness with great joy. We can then help-counsel others to do the same.

The Gift of PIETY helps us to live out the commandment in order to love God and love our neighbor for love of God True Piety is knowledge that God is love, that he loves each of us infinitely. Our response should be thanksgiving; that is, to worship and adore God properly, reverently and devotedly, at Holy Mass and before His true, physical presence in the Holy Eucharist in order to be able to love God more and to love those whom he loves.

With piety we act appropriately in Church, never talking because the tabernacle which contains the HolyEucharist-God on earth is before us. We dress with our Sunday Best (never shorts), w genuflect, pray, and kneel with great piety, not just because we do them well, but because our outward actions matches the inter dispositions of our heart.

With this gift as well, the Holy Spirit heals our hearts of every form of hardness and un-forgiveness, and opens them to tenderness towards God and our brothers and sisters. With this gift, we feel urged to treat all people with great kindness and friendliness, to do good even to those who wrong us, to love and forgive even those who hate us and persecute us. We all need this gift, just think about how often each day we are called to love people who are human speaking hard to love.

Lastly, the Gift of the FEAR OF THE LORD is a special gift, which helps us to dread and avoid sin. The gift of fear is not like the fear we experience in a horror film or the fear of being hit by a lightening bolt from heaven. It is not a fear in which we are afraid of God. It is our sin, which causes us to fear God in this wrong way. The true gift of fear from the Holy Spirit is a holy fear, a fear of not offending in any way a God who loves you so much and whom who want to love in return. We become sorry for our sins not so much because we dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell but most of all because we have offended our God who is all good and deserving of all of love. With this Holy fear we longer fear the loss of human respect, we are set free from our slavery to human respect, we fear only offending God who love us so much.

Today at this Holy Mass, let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us with all of his gifts. We need these gifts so very much. He is an all knowing Expert who will guide us in our decisions and difficulties if we ask Him; He will help us to make the right choices in our lives, to choose this action or that; He will help us in our relationships, to get along better with those we love, especially in our families; He will help us in the times we have no idea what to do, situations that seem hopeless or impossible such as the illness or death of a loved one, our own serious personal illness, the loss of our job or our struggle in finding new employment. And when we feel lost, if we cry out to the Holy Spirit, He will immediately, and I do mean immediately, rush to our aid and begin to show us the way. We can simply say with great trust, “Holy Spirit help me for I am lost.”

So today, at this Holy Mass which is also a Pentecost as the priest calls down the Holy Spirit over the gifts and over all of us to make us holy, let us turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is actually the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. Along with prayer, let us turn to her to help us draw close to this same Holy Spirit so that we may put His great gifts into effect in lives. St. Louis de Montfort who wrote the beautiful work, “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin,” maintains that devotion to Our Lady is the best means to develop an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. He says: “God the Holy Spirit wishes to fashion His chosen ones in and through Mary” and St. de Montfort insists, that when the Holy Spirit finds Mary in a soul, He hastens there and enters fully into it. The Holy Spirit then gives Himself generously to that soul to the degree that it has made a place for the spouse of the same Holy Spirit. Let us turn to Mary, the Holy Spirit’s spouse, so that she may help us to offer our heart totally at this Holy Mass; through her the Holy Spirit may then form Jesus in us as a fruit of our Holy Communion that through Jesus living in us, the Holy Spirit will renew the face of the world.

“Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of Thy faithful, enkindle in them the fire of Divine Love. Send forth Thy Spirit and You will renew the face of the earth.

O God, Who didst instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant that by the same Spirit we may be truly wise, and ever more rejoice in His consolation. Through Christ our Lord.

Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed the Virgin Mary, your well beloved spouse.